Good morning! I’m dashing off this post quickly before I have to rush out the door to drive into D.C. for the third time in three days. The locally-based members of my employer’s legal department are having a morning gathering at Rock Creek Park – I’m excited. I haven’t met anyone in person yet, so this should be fun.

But backing it up to Saturday. We woke up slowly and meandered out the door for 10:00 a.m. kayak reservations at our favorite spot, Fletcher’s Cove (just upriver from Georgetown). We switched it up and Nugget paddled with Steve, while Peanut paddled with me. Let me tell you, it was really refreshing to paddle with someone who wasn’t yelling at me to go faster all the time. Peanut and I spotted birds, talked about what we’re reading right now (Beezus and Ramona – a re-read – for her; Mrs. Lorimer’s Quiet Summer for me) and soaked up the morning sun. The tide was high, the current was low, and there wasn’t much breeze, so it made for an easier paddle than others we’ve done recently. Altogether – just a nice, nice morning. We drove home for lunch and to shower off the Potomac, and then Peanut and I turned around and headed right back into the District to meet up with my friend Taunia and her daughter, who were visiting from Buffalo on their way to the beach for the week. Taunia hadn’t been to D.C. in sixteen (or twenty-six? she couldn’t remember) years, and her daughter never had – so we started by getting them oriented to the National Mall. We looped the monuments, all the way from their hotel way up near the Capitol and down to the Lincoln Memorial – a looooooooong walk – and then kept going up to Chinatown for dinner. At the end of the day I’d logged almost 24,000 steps – oof!

Sunday was much more low-key. We had planned to spend the day getting things done around the house, but I got a very slow start, frittering away the morning sitting on the couch and scrolling through my phone. (Normally I would feel badly about that, but I’ve been on the go so much lately, I think I needed the break.) Eventually I did motivate myself off the couch and tackle my big project – cleaning out the fridge. It needed it, badly. After three garbage bags and several loads of dishes (ALL the Pyrex) the fridge has space again and everything in there is edible. Great success! I cleaned the rest of the kitchen as well, and folded several loads of Steve’s and the kids’ laundry, then collapsed on the couch to get caught up on some Olympics. Ended up leaving the house only twice (once to pick up dinner, because I didn’t want to dirty a bunch of dishes in my sparkling kitchen) and once for a neighborhood walk after tucking the kids into bed. And now another week begins. Let’s go get it!

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Reading. It’s been another busy week in life and another slow week in reading. Noel Streatfeild’s Holiday Stories took me seven days to wrap up (very unusual for me, especially for a short volume of children’s stories – shows you where my head is these days) but I finally finished it on Friday. It was cute, but suffered from my short attention span. I turned to Mrs. Lorimer’s Quiet Summer next, and I am really enjoying it. As of press time, I’m a little more than halfway through and it’s just what I wanted to read right now – light, funny, totally delightful and summery.

Watching. After cleansing our palates for a few days after the Tour de France, we’re back on the sports wagon. On Sunday, we watched the Tokyo Opening Ceremonies and then a bit of the prime-time coverage (we caught Simone Biles’ floor routine – astonishing as always). Looking forward to two weeks of Olympics-watching!

Listening. The usual mixture – music (my summer playlist again; still loving it) and podcasts. I’m nearly caught up on a backlog of Shedunnit and The Slightly Foxed Podcast episodes thanks to my evening neighborhood walks. The highlight this week was an episode of The Mom Hour on “coping strategies for the chronically annoyed.” Sarah and Meagan were as gently validating as ever, and I found myself nodding along with many of their gripes (shoes kicked off in doorways! melodramatic play-fighting!) and wishing I had a notepad to scribble down their suggestions for dealing with the annoyance.

Making. The usual summer stuff here – not a lot of cooking in the kitchen, but plenty of work product and progress (two steps forward, one step back, but that’s still progress) toward getting the house in order. Given the season, it’s a bit of a losing battle – the hall table is piled with sunglasses and sports equipment; I trip over soccer cleats almost every day; and the kitchen counters are (usually) littered with water bottles. But progress is being made, slowly.

Moving. Bit of a lighter week – a few runs, lots of evening walks, and one morning of kayaking. No hikes this week – whoops. I need more yoga in my life.

Blogging. I can’t give you any hints this week because I have nothing planned and no ideas. Something will come to me and we’ll all be surprised.

Loving. It was such fun playing tourist in my own town with a visiting friend. I don’t do that enough! As I guided Taunia, her daughter, and Peanut toward the monuments, I realized that the last time I wandered around this part of the Mall was 2015, when I wasn’t actually even living here (we stopped in town to break up a drive from Buffalo to the Outer Banks and even then, didn’t do too much tourist stuff, preferring to spend our time meeting up with friends all around the city). We do hit the Smithsonian museums on a regular basis when there isn’t a pandemic on, but rarely make time for the monuments. I’m definitely going to have to get back to the Mall sooner than later.

Asking. What are you reading this week?